2001 Mirror Craze
The 2001 Mirror Craze was an event that took place between October 2001 and January 2002 that affected parts of the Eastern United States, Virginia, and Kansas City. During this event demand for funhousehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distorting_mirror (or distorting) style mirrors hit an all time high when retailers overstocked many varieties of such mirrors and caused a consumer rush on funhouse mirrors. Beginnings of the Craze The foundations for the 2001 Mirror Craze were laid sometime in August 2001, when several leading retailers such as Target, Sears, Walmart, Lowes, Kmart, and TJ Maxx experienced an error in their shared supply chain management, Logility. This error caused an abnormal amount of funhouse style mirrors to be ordered for locations in the eastern United States. These supply chain errors were mostly centered around Virginia and parts of West Virginia and Kentucky along with some smaller orders in the Kansas City region. Leading Mirror historians are still unable to determine the cause of this error, but it is believed to be partially due to Logility upgrading parts of their server infrastructure at the time. Additionally some believe it may have been due in part to a mis-input in the companies Excel ordering spreadsheet, ordering 300 per location instead of the intended 30. Consumer Rush When these orders arrived at retail locations, the affected stores sold them for normal price up until the approaching Christmas season forced them to start offering deep discounts on the excess stock to clear the shelves for new Christmas product lines. Due to the deep discounts many stores sold large portions of their mirror stock throughout the September month. These products started to become a fashion icon of sorts and became widely popular with kids in the 6-13 age demographic. Because of the proliferation of these cheap mirrors, many households were able to acquire a mirror during the month of September. Due to the products mass appeal with the younger age demographic, they started to become widely asked for among those households without a funhouse mirror and parents were buying many as gifts for the upcoming Christmas season. Many news outlets began to pick up on these items popularity and ran segments in early October on the mass sales of the mirrors which prompted prospective salesmen to rush and purchase the remaining stocks in many locations and try to sell them for many times their retail value. When retailers experienced these early rushes on products they raised the priced on their remaining stock, with some as much as raising the price 5x beyond the initial value. The rising price did not deter rabid consumers and there was a thriving market for funhouse mirrors with almost none remaining in stores by late November. Some retailers pushed special models for the Christmas season, with some retailing for as high as $700. By January the craze started to die down with most local excess stock completely sold out and the second hand market exhausting the willingness of the consumers to pay. Notable Models Rural King PF-002 The Rural King PF-002 (Parallax Flex) was a special model released in December of 2001 and featured one horizontal flex at the bottom, and one vertical flex at the top. It Retailed at $249.99 Costco Tri-Distort This model had a very limited run and is one of the rarest funhouse mirror models available during the height of the Craze. This model had three distortion zones offering 1 horizontal, 1 vertical, and 1 spherical section that could be rotated to any angle. This was considered the premiere model for any funhouse enthusiast as they featured a special silver/tin alloy backing and were known for their crisp image. It Retailed at $699.99.